The following description includes information that may be useful in understanding the present invention. It is not an admission that any of the information provided herein is prior art or relevant to the presently claimed invention, or that any publication specifically or implicitly referenced is prior art.
Advances in portable devices that are capable of directly communicating with each other via short range wireless technology (e.g., direct WiFi, Bluetooth®, infrared, etc.) allow devices to form ad-hoc peer-to-peer networks anytime and anywhere (see “Infrastructure for Peer-to-Peer Applications in Ad-hoc Networks” by Desai et al. and U.S. Pat. No. 8,520,979 issued to Conwell entitled “Methods and Systems for Content Processing”, filed Nov. 14, 2008). These networks are formed when two or more portable devices are communicatively coupled to each other via short range wireless connections without depending on any pre-existing network infrastructure such as a server, an access point, etc. Once connected to the network, a device can potentially access content (e.g., documents, photos, videos, etc.) or resources of and/or connected to other devices (e.g., printer, camera, data storage, etc.) on the network. Conversely, the device can also share its content or resources to the other devices connected to the network.
However, these seemingly convenient peer-to-peer network architectures also raise new security issues that were not present in conventional network architectures. For example, since a peer-to-peer network allows devices to join the network and access resources in the network by merely connecting to any one of the devices that is part of the network, it is a challenge to devise a meaningful security policy for all of the resources within the network.
Efforts have been made in the area of providing better security to ad-hoc peer-2-peer networks. For example, the publication “A Trust-based Approach for Secure Data Dissemination in a Mobile Peer-to-Peer Network of aerial vehicles (AVs)” by Bhargava et al. discloses providing different access to different AVs within the network based on a trustworthiness score assigned to each AV. The trustworthiness score for each AV is determined by a set of factors such as history of interactions with that AV, location, distance, authentication level, etc.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,907,934 issued to Naghian entitled “Method and System for Providing Security in Proximity and Ad-hoc Networks”, filed Sep. 9, 2004, also discloses a method for providing security in a mobile ad-hoc network based on the location of the device requesting for access.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,149,697 issued to Parkkinen et al. entitled “System, Method, and Computer Program Product for Dicovering Services in a Network Device”, filed Jun. 26, 2008, discloses providing security in an ad-hoc peer-to-peer network based on degree of separation between the owner of the resource and the device that wishes to access the resource;
Other efforts that have been made in this area includes:                U.S. Pat. No. 7,613,426 issued to Kuehnel et al. entitled “Proximity Service Discovery in Wireless Networks”, filed Dec. 20, 2005;        U.S. Pat. No. 7,974,574 to Shen et al. entitled “Base Station Initiated Proximity Service Discovery and Connection Establishment”, filed Jul. 25, 1007;        U.S. Pat. No. 8,135,835 issued to Wilbrink et al. entitled “Hardware and Processing Request Brokerage”, filed May 12, 2005;        U.S. Patent Publication 2007/0250482 to Yao et al. entitled “Method and Apparatus for Document Matching”, filed Apr. 25, 2006;        U.S. Patent Publication 2012/0084364 to Sivavakeesar entitled “Scalable Secure Wireless Interaction Enabling Methods, System and Framework”, filed Oct. 5, 2010;        U.S. Patent Publication 2013/0160076 to Morita entitled “Access Authority Generation Device”, filed Feb. 26, 2013; and        U.S. Patent Publication 2013/0219285 to Iwasaki entitled “Mirrored Interface Navigation of Multiple User Interfaces”, filed Feb. 21, 2012.        
All publications identified herein are incorporated by reference to the same extent as if each individual publication or patent application were specifically and individually indicated to be incorporated by reference. Where a definition or use of a term in an incorporated reference is inconsistent or contrary to the definition of that term provided herein, the definition of that term provided herein applies and the definition of that term in the reference does not apply.
In some embodiments, the numbers expressing quantities of ingredients, properties such as concentration, reaction conditions, and so forth, used to describe and claim certain embodiments of the invention are to be understood as being modified in some instances by the term “about.” Accordingly, in some embodiments, the numerical parameters set forth in the written description and attached claims are approximations that can vary depending upon the desired properties sought to be obtained by a particular embodiment. In some embodiments, the numerical parameters should be construed in light of the number of reported significant digits and by applying ordinary rounding techniques. Notwithstanding that the numerical ranges and parameters setting forth the broad scope of some embodiments of the invention are approximations, the numerical values set forth in the specific examples are reported as precisely as practicable. The numerical values presented in some embodiments of the invention may contain certain errors necessarily resulting from the standard deviation found in their respective testing measurements.
Unless the context dictates the contrary, all ranges set forth herein should be interpreted as being inclusive of their endpoints and open-ended ranges should be interpreted to include only commercially practical values. Similarly, all lists of values should be considered as inclusive of intermediate values unless the context indicates the contrary.
As used in the description herein and throughout the claims that follow, the meaning of “a,” “an,” and “the” includes plural reference unless the context clearly dictates otherwise. Also, as used in the description herein, the meaning of “in” includes “in” and “on” unless the context clearly dictates otherwise.
The recitation of ranges of values herein is merely intended to serve as a shorthand method of referring individually to each separate value falling within the range. Unless otherwise indicated herein, each individual value with a range is incorporated into the specification as if it were individually recited herein. All methods described herein can be performed in any suitable order unless otherwise indicated herein or otherwise clearly contradicted by context. The use of any and all examples, or exemplary language (e.g. “such as”) provided with respect to certain embodiments herein is intended merely to better illuminate the invention and does not pose a limitation on the scope of the invention otherwise claimed. No language in the specification should be construed as indicating any non-claimed element essential to the practice of the invention.
Groupings of alternative elements or embodiments of the invention disclosed herein are not to be construed as limitations. Each group member can be referred to and claimed individually or in any combination with other members of the group or other elements found herein. One or more members of a group can be included in, or deleted from, a group for reasons of convenience and/or patentability. When any such inclusion or deletion occurs, the specification is herein deemed to contain the group as modified thus fulfilling the written description of all Markush groups used in the appended claims.
The publications listed above address only some but not all security issues in an ad-hoc peer-to-peer network. Thus, there is still a need for providing a more secured architecture for an ad-hoc peer-to-peer network.